I’m impressed with the battery life on the iPad 2
About a month ago it was announced that Apple changed the chip architecture of the iPad 2 after the new iPad came out. Since I never really used an iPad 2 with the old chip, I can’t really give a comparison. But what I can tell you is that I am seriously impressed with the battery life on the newer iPad 2.
Now, I understand that there are so many factors that affect battery life; it’s hard to really say how good a device’s battery life is until you’ve used it for a while, and have done different things on it. I know that if I play certain games on my phone, I can kill it in an hour or so. If my phone sits on my desk, where it has a good signal and WiFi, I can leave after a ten hour day with still 80% of the charge left. I also know that on Android, if you look at your battery stats, you will most likely see your display as the top battery eater. Just having the screen on chews away at your battery.
Well, I just got home from a 15 hour day. We had a concert at my church, and I was in charge of sound for three of the four bands. I got there at 8 a.m. to start setting up, and I of course had my iPad with me to help me keep track of what channels I was plugging cables into. When that was done, I sat down to check my email and read on my iPad for a little while, as I was waiting for the first band to show up. After the band got there, I gave my iPad to their sound guy to their mix sound. (This was an amazing time, and another great time spent learning about mixing on the iPad – one I will tell you more about later.) Once the first band was done sound checking, the next three bands got their gear set up and checked. Then we had the concert that went from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
I’ve described my day to make this point: In the 11 1/2 hours that I just described, I would guess that my iPad was on and running an app for at least eight hours of that time, most of it at 50% brightness or higher. I really wish that Apple had Android’s battery tracking feature so that I could show you exactly what it was, but either way, I know that my TouchPad would not have made it half of that time with constant use. Now I know that my TouchPad is running software that it is not designed to run – I understand that – but, man, did that iPad just run and run. I didn’t use my phone much, except for a few pictures, and it died a few hours ago. Here I sit at home, and my iPad is still going. I’m very impressed with the battery life of this thing, and I know there will be plenty of other days where I push it to the limits.
